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There are a lot of things I still would like to do in this life,
and a lot of things I wish I'd done while I was still in
college. Mostly, I wish I would have taken more time to explore
other areas of academia--science, for instance, and outdoor
recreation. There's still plenty I can do to explore these
things, but I know I would have benefited from exposing myself to
them more while in college, where there are endless resources for
any kind of academic and nonacademic pursuit a student wishes to
investigate.

Whether you are in college already or preparing to attend, I
would encourage you to think carefully about both your major and
the things you pursue while in college. If being an entrepreneur is
your ultimate goal, you would do well to expose yourself to as many
different activities--both academic and extracurricular--as
possible.

The reason I recommend this strategy is that entrepreneurship
requires such a diverse range of skills that it can only help for
you to get involved with a diverse range of activities. When you
are an entrepreneur, you're a salesperson, marketing expert,
accountant, artist, writer, financial expert, tech guru and manager
all at once. Of course you will be more of one thing than another
based on the type of business you want to start, but essentially it
helps to have skills in many different areas.

So while you are in college, remember that your major is not as
important as the things you get out of your total college
experience. Get involved with campus clubs, offer to write an
article for the school newspaper, learn some computer skills, get a
job in the campus bookstore to learn about managing money and
keeping records, take an art class--do whatever you can to get a
taste of all different disciplines. At the same time, be sure to
specialize in something--you don't want to be a jack of all
trades and master of none.

When you start a business, you'll find yourself wearing
different hats day in and day out, depending on the circumstances.
By taking the time while you're in college to expand your
horizons--yes, your mother was right about that--you will know in
an instant which hat is appropriate for which situation. And
you'll wear that hat with confidence.